Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
$9.99

Available instantly

Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
$9.40 - $13.97

Paperback
$8.73 - $12.79

List Price: $26.95 Details

Save: $12.98 (48%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Wednesday, January 3 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or text message.

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$13.97 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

PearlAngel

Sold by

PearlAngel

Returns

Returnable until Jan 31, 2024

Returns

Returnable until Jan 31, 2024

For the 2023 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2023 can be returned until January 31, 2024

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Wednesday, January 3 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or text message.

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Martistore

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$13.96
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: kozybooks85

Added

Not added

$26.95
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: Amazon.com

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Nicholas Carr

Follow

The Glass Cage: Automation and Us American First Edition

by Nicholas Carr (Author)

4.2 435 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$13.97","priceAmount":13.97,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"13","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"97","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"%2FsmAYgM4x16a4Ovs2dDcKaeHdN065qBKeVhk60hYHu6%2FAtArO5D8O4f3CxekYvs2%2Fo3c%2FSCt3CqQfEZ3VE4pmkhzA0DG8tLu0n%2Bt8YJED00RHwHGcLMmbL%2B2x7jhFcq2JN7Nh9vu0v2ST3zIltohRSkMxqFUaKr4RklofNIv85B7ZZI%2F2pu%2BM4b1VVhWIK79","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.40","priceAmount":9.40,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"40","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"%2FsmAYgM4x16a4Ovs2dDcKaeHdN065qBKQhOgapSEx5BJXR7ZOU5bvz8QbWwZT95kNwMzJ77jK4fDfPO5W0lSzPsAsfn8AQZSFaqWDiZ9ltcdatnE2%2FV%2Fap24gQfdb77IpAV77B13zLeQwjaV2IUgff8NY2wuNZbCN%2F3lcYfG0McSU0Cloy1rL5VM456moaTU","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

At once a celebration of technology and a warning about its misuse, The Glass Cage will change the way you think about the tools you use every day.

In The Glass Cage, best-selling author Nicholas Carr digs behind the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars, wearable computers and digitized medicine, as he explores the hidden costs of granting software dominion over our work and our leisure. Even as they bring ease to our lives, these programs are stealing something essential from us.

Drawing on psychological and neurological studies that underscore how tightly people’s happiness and satisfaction are tied to performing hard work in the real world, Carr reveals something we already suspect: shifting our attention to computer screens can leave us disengaged and discontented.

From nineteenth-century textile mills to the cockpits of modern jets, from the frozen hunting grounds of Inuit tribes to the sterile landscapes of GPS maps, The Glass Cage explores the impact of automation from a deeply human perspective, examining the personal as well as the economic consequences of our growing dependence on computers.

With a characteristic blend of history and philosophy, poetry and science, Carr takes us on a journey from the work and early theory of Adam Smith and Alfred North Whitehead to the latest research into human attention, memory, and happiness, culminating in a moving meditation on how we can use technology to expand the human experience.

ISBN-10

0393240762
ISBN-13

978-0393240764
Edition

American First
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

2014
September 29
Language

EN
English
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.0 x 9.6
inches
Length

288
Pages
See all details

Frequently bought together

$13.97

Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jan 3

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by PearlAngel and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.

+

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

$15.65

Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jan 3

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

Utopia Is Creepy: And Other Provocations

$9.40

Get it Dec 29 - Jan 3

Only 3 left in stock - order soon.

Ships from and sold by powells_chicago.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Neil Postman
3,410
Paperback
125 offers from $3.82
Adam Alter
1,992
Paperback
99 offers from $2.80
Kevin Kelly
3,053
Paperback
125 offers from $1.68
Nicholas Carr
773
Paperback
25 offers from $5.29
Cal Newport
7,576
Hardcover
81 offers from $6.90
Neil Postman
561
Paperback
106 offers from $3.05

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Nicholas Carr is among the most lucid, thoughtful, and necessary thinkers alive. He’s also terrific company. The Glass Cage should be required reading for everyone with a phone."
― Jonathan Safran Foer

"Artificial intelligence has that name for a reason―it isn’t natural, it isn’t human. As Nicholas Carr argues so gracefully and convincingly in this important, insightful book, it is time for people to regain the art of thinking. It is time to invent a world where machines are subservient to the needs and wishes of humanity."
― Don Norman, author of Things that Make Us Smart and Design of Everyday Things, director of the University of California San Diego Design Lab

"Written with restrained objectivity, The Glass Cage is nevertheless scary as any sci-fi thriller could be. It forces readers to reflect on what they already suspect, but don't want to admit, about how technology is shaping our lives. Like it or not, we are now responsible for the future of this negligible planet circling Sol; books like this one are needed until we develop an appropriate operating manual."
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, professor of psychology and management, Claremont Graduate University

"Engaging, informative …Carr deftly incorporates hard research and historical developments with philosophy and prose to depict how technology is changing the way we live our lives."
― Publishers Weekly

"Nick Carr is our most informed, intelligent critic of technology. Since we are going to automate everything, Carr persuades us that we should do it wisely―with mindful automation. Carr's human-centric technological future is one you might actually want to live in."
― Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick for Wired Magazine and author of What Technology Wants

"Most of us, myself included, are too busy tweeting to notice our march into technological dehumanization. Nicholas Carr applies the brakes for us (and our self-driving cars)."
― Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure

"Carr brilliantly and scrupulously explores all the psychological and economic angles of our increasingly problematic reliance on machinery and microchips to manage almost every aspect of our lives. A must-read for software engineers and technology experts in all corners of industry as well as everyone who finds himself or herself increasingly dependent on and addicted to gadgets."
― Booklist, Starred Review

"Fresh and powerful."
― Mark Bauerlein, Weekly Standard

"Nick Carr is the rare thinker who understands that technological progress is both essential and worrying. The Glass Cage is a call for technology that complements our human capabilities, rather than replacing them."
― Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus

"A sobering new analysis of the hazards of intelligent technology."
― Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe

"The Glass Cage is a worthy antidote to the relentlessly hopeful futurism of Google, TED Talks and Walt Disney… The same way no popular conversation on cloning can be had without bringing to mind Michael Crichton's techno-jeremiad Jurassic Park, Carr's book is positioned to stake out similar ground: To suggest moral restraint on future development with a well-timed and well-placed ‘what-if?'"
― James Janega, Chicago Tribune

"A stimulating, absorbing read."
― Michelle Scheraga, Associated Press

"An elegantly written history of what role robotics have played in our past, and the possible role that they may play in our future… The Glass Cage urges us to take a moment, to take stock, and to realize the price that we’re paying―if not right this second, then certainly at some point in the future―in order to live a life that’s made easier by technology."
― Elisabeth Donnelly, Flavorwire

"Helps us appreciate why so-called gains of ‘superior results’ can come with a steep price of hard-to-see tradeoffs that are no less potent for being subtle and nuanced."
― Evan Seliger, Forbes Magazine

"[A] deeply informed reflection on computer automation."
― G. Pascal Zachary, San Francisco Chronicle

"Smart, insightful… paint[s] a portrait of a world readily handing itself over to intelligent devices."
― Jacob Axelrad, Christian Science Monitor

"Forces the reader to think about where we're going, how fast, and what it all means."
― Phil Simon, Huffington Post

"Brings a much-needed humanistic perspective to the wider issues of automation."
― Richard Waters, Financial Times

"One of Carr’s great strengths as a critic is the measured calm of his approach to his material―a rare thing in debates over technology… Carr excels at exploring these gray areas and illuminating for readers the intangible things we are losing by automating our lives."
― Christine Rosen, Democracy

"There have been few cautionary voices like Nicholas Carr’s urging us to take stock, especially, of the effects of automation on our very humanness―what makes us who we are as individuals―and on our humanity―what makes us who we are in aggregate."
― Sue Halpern, New York Review of Books

About the Author

Nicholas Carr is the author of The Shallows, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Glass Cage, and Utopia is Creepy. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, and Wired. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; American First edition (September 29, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393240762
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393240764
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.26 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #403,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #183 in Robotics & Automation (Books)
- #292 in Social Aspects of Technology
- #1,242 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 435 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Nicholas Carr

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Nicholas Carr is an acclaimed writer whose work focuses on technology, economics, and culture. His books, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," have been translated into more than 25 languages. He is a visiting professor of sociology at Williams College in Massachusetts and was formerly executive editor of the Harvard Business Review. In 2015, he received the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity from the Media Ecology Association.

A New York Times bestseller when it was first published in 2010 and now hailed as “a modern classic,” "The Shallows" remains a touchstone for debates on technology’s effects on our thoughts and perceptions. A new, expanded edition of "The Shallows" was published in 2020. Carr’s 2014 book "The Glass Cage: Automation and Us," which the New York Review of Books called a “chastening meditation on the human future,” examines the personal and social consequences of our ever growing dependency on computers, robots, and apps. His latest book, "Utopia Is Creepy," collects his best essays, blog posts, and other writings from the past dozen years. The collection is “by turns wry and revelatory,” wrote Discover.

Carr is also the author of two other influential books, "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google" (2008), which the Financial Times called “the best read so far about the significance of the shift to cloud computing,” and the widely discussed and debated "Does IT Matter?" (2004).

Carr has written for many newspapers, magazines, and journals, including the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, Nature, and MIT Technology Review. His essays, including “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and “The Great Forgetting,” have been collected in several anthologies, including The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best Spiritual Writing, and The Best Technology Writing. Carr is a former member of the Encyclopedia Britannica’s editorial board of advisors and was a writer-in-residence at the University of California at Berkeley’s journalism school. Since 2005, he has written the popular blog Rough Type, at www.roughtype.com. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A., in English and American Literature and Language, from Harvard University.

More information about Carr's work can be found at his website, www.nicholascarr.com. [Author photo by Scott Keneally.]

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

435 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

Translate all reviews to English

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Chris Ziesler

The Road Less Traveled

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2014

Verified Purchase

My first question on seeing this book was, is it going to be as successful and thought-provoking as Carr's previous book The Shallows? The answer is an unequivocal, "yes!"

If you've not read The Shallows I recommend that you consider reading it first because many of the thoughts and ideas from it are continued, developed and extended in The Glass Cage. It's not a necessary prerequisite but it would enhance your appreciation of Carr's arguments.

Carr's central thesis can be summed up in a quote often attributed to Marshall McLuhan, "we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us."

Carr's point, which he develops with many intriguing examples ranging from airline pilots, through doctors, photographers, architects, and even to farmers, is that this Faustian pact with technology comes at a cost. The cost, in Carr's view, is a loss of direct, experiential, formative contact with our work. The consequences of this slow loss of familiarity and connection with our work are subtle, insidious and will only increase while we follow this technocentric approach to automation.

Carr is excellent at making his case. Most of his examples are familiar and those that less so, such as the automation of legal and medical opinions are interesting in that they affect us all.

I felt that where Carr was less strong was in proposing solutions to the problems he raises. He works hard at explaining an alternative vision calling on the poetry of Robert Frost's as a springboard to a more humanistic approach to developing tools, but it is hard work selling an alternative to the easy, convenient future that so many of us seem to crave.

Ultimately it may be that Carr's biggest contribution will not be to single-handedly derail the future that Google, Apple, and Amazon wish to sell us, an exceedingly unlikely outcome, but to at least make us aware that there is a choice that we are making when we choose the frictionless path to the future, and that we should carefully consider that choice before we make it.

97 people found this helpful

Helpful

Tyler Morgan

Although redundant at times, it is a quick read and worthwhile for Carr's insightfulness on a very relevant topic.

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2018

Verified Purchase

Overall, it's a pretty quick and easy read, and Carr definitely makes some very interesting points along the way. However, as other reviewers have noted, the book could have been reduced by about one half without diminishing any of the author's thoughts. Towards the end of the book, I felt a bit fatigued due to the repetitive nature of the chapters. My guess is that this repetitiveness stems from the book being partly drawn from numerous articles and blog posts that Carr wrote on the topic, many of which presumably harped on the same theme over and over again for different intended audiences.

One of the most interesting quotes from the book comes toward the end, and I would love to see Carr or someone else compose a more detailed look at this possible outcome of automation. Arguing against the likelihood of automation liberating all of society from labor and facilitating a life of leisure and bliss, Carr states: "It strains credulity to imagine today's technology moguls, with their libertarian leanings and impatience with government, agreeing to the kind of vast wealth redistribution scheme that would be necessary to fund the self-actualizing leisure-time pursuits of the jobless multitudes." As automation erodes the low-skill, low-wage job base, this hypothetical is going to become a reality, and it could be a huge problem if we don't come up with ways to deal with the implications for inequality.

Back to the book review...In sum, it is a worthwhile read for almost everyone, as the topics covered affect all of us. The short time it will take you to read the book will be worth it for Carr's occasionally eye-opening insights.

Helpful

Cliente Kindle

Más allá de la automatización

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

Después de leer "The Shallows", los capítulos iniciales del libro no me decían gran cosa sobre los efectos de la automatización porque usaban argumentos y referencias que he utilizado en mis propios escritos.

Incluso encontré que había comprado el marketing de Boeing como más cercano al usuario que Airbus cuando la prueba definitiva de manejar criterios de diseño igualmente alejados de su usuario la dieron los casos del 737MÁS (posteriores a la publicación).

Un claro paralelismo con "The Shallows" está en el análisis longitudinal del desarrollo tecnológico y cómo, basado en ese análisis, concluye que no todos los tipos de desarrollo son iguales ni buscan lo mismo.

Sin embargo, la mejor parte está en el último tercio, donde quedan claramente explicados los incentivos para un modelo de desarrollo, sus efectos y por qué, tras haber alcanzado una masa crítica, resultan tan difíciles de cambiar. Ahí ya no habla de automatización sino que se pregunta dónde vamos, pregunta que, partiendo de los hechos, queda absolutamente justificada.

NOTA FINAL: Influido por el libro, tuve la curiosidad de hacer un viaje sin recurrir al Google Mapa ni al "Cruise control". El viaje se me hizo mucho más corto.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Translate review to English

Steven L. Fedder

Well researched and historically rooted

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

I was familiar with Nicholas Carr having read his book "The Shallows", a commentary on the effects on the Internet on the actual functioning and physical structure of the human brain. I found that book to be excellent - this one is, I feel, even better. Carr is remarkably thorough in the research he conducts, as attested to by the lengthy notes and references at the end of each book. His ability to write remarkably meaty yet easy to read pages is but a bonus in his analysis of the effects of automation on we humans faced with interacting with modern computerized/robotic technology, particularly in the workplace. He clearly feels there is considerable dehumanization possible, but does so in a style of oscillation back and forth between lionizing and demonizing technological advances. He gives the reader's brain the encouragement to see the whole picture, to think broadly and with a humanistic focus throughout. His weaving in of the opinions of numerous writers and poets displays this in the impressive manner of a Renaissance man. This should be required reading particularly by those enamored of technological advances as ends unto themselves.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Cliente Amazon

Great book and perfectly new

Reviewed in Spain on December 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

Great book and perfectly new

Herman Stein

Spannende Einblicke in die wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnise zu über 100 Jahre Automatisierung

Reviewed in Germany on February 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Nicholas Carr beschreibt an den Beispielen der Luftfahrt und der Medizin, welche Auswirkungen Automatisierung nachweislich auf das Arbeitsleben hat. Gerade am Beispiel der Luftfahrt kann er dabei auf über 100 Jahre Forschungsgeschichte zurückblicken und führt diese hervorragend zusammen. Ein generelles Fazit ist, dass vorhandene Abläufe durch Automatisierung nicht 'nur' vereinfacht werden, sondern sich dadurch zumeist auch komplett und oft in unvorhergesehener Weise verändern. So führt der Wechsel vom komplexen dauerhaften manuellen Steuern eines Flugzeugs hin zum Beobachten und Prüfen des Autopilots beispielsweise dazu, dass selbst hervorragende Piloten aus ihrer notwendigen Immerson mit der Maschine fallen und im Notfall so oft völlig falsche Entscheidungen treffen (hier sehr vereinfacht wiedergegeben). Cage führt zahllose Studien an, die die Auswirkungen auf psychologischer, technischer, sozialer und wirtschaftlicher Ebene untersucht haben, fässt die Hauptergebnisse sehr anschaulich zusammen. Cage ist kein Automatisierungskritiker per se, geht das Thema nach der gewonnenen Erfahrung aber äußerst kritisch an, und bewahrt sich so die notwendige Objektivität. Ein Augenöffner, den sich gerade Ingenieure, Vertriebler und Marketingexperten im IT-Sektor zu Gemüte führen sollten.

Translate review to English

Fer G.

Important read

Reviewed in Mexico on November 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

Interesting read. Really smart approach to important issues of the modern society.
In my opinion the book is a bit redundant, but still a good read.

Amazon Customer

Very informative and analytical book,

Reviewed in India on July 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

Very informative and analytical book,a must read book for everyone who wants to know what is wrong in this era

Shamel Addas

Very insightful, yet pessimistic

Reviewed in Canada on October 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

Excellent book. Nick Carr shines as always. The book is very well written and draws on many potent examples to show how automation is affecting us at various levels. Although the book is quite pessimistic toward technology and its impacts, it offers some more guidelines on how to use automation wisely (if at all possible).

2 people found this helpful

See more reviews